Ibadan, Oyo 23 April, 2015-The World Health Organization (WHO) State coordinator (SC) in Oyo, Dr Ada Erinne is confident that Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials donated by WHO to the State Ministry of Health (SMOH) will bolster integrated disease detection and reporting as well as facilitate the attainment of certification standard acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance.

In the latest determination to achieve this, tertiary and secondary institutions are the focus for strengthening surveillance performance.

The SC also reiterated the WHO’s mandate and core function to the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin when she led her team to deliver roller banners, posters as well as cartons of hand sanitizers at a presentation ceremony held at the Ministry of Health on 22 April 2015.

“Until recently, there has been the challenge of under-reporting of target diseases/conditions for immediate notification especially Yellow fever, Neonatal Tetanus, Cerebrospinal Meningitis and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers in the state. Records of disease reporting from 2012 to 2014 show a decline in number of cases” Dr Erinne observed.

Under-reporting of diseases has been a problem in Oyo state, especially in tertiary and secondary health facilities despite several efforts to improve notification and reporting; including sensitizations of clinicians at all levels, as cases continued to be missed. To fully understand the root causes of the problem, WHO in collaboration with the state government conducted a review of the disease surveillance network and a series of sensitization activities.

At all the venues of the sensitization meetings which included University College Hospital Ibadan, BOWEN University Teaching Hospital Ogbomosho, Adeoyo Hospital Ibadan, LAUTECH Hospital Ogbomosho, Ring Road Specialist Hospital, the clinicians admitted seeing some of the described cases and requested visual reminders of case definitions of the target diseases and disease notification /reporting processes to serve as constant guides when attending to patients.

This support is expected to create and sustain awareness as well as improve active case detection and reporting of these conditions by clinicians in tertiary and secondary health institutions (including privately owned health facilities). They will serve as ‘backdrops’ during media sensitization events and teaching aides for the planned intensified clinicians sensitizations to be conducted by Oyo SMOH and partners in collaboration with WHO starting later this month.

Accepting the donation from SC, Dr Muyiwa Gbadege commended WHO for the invaluable support to the state. In his words, “when you told me about this initiative, I was happy because of the low reporting of these diseases due to lack of information. With the provision of these easy to read reminders, we believe that our health workers will improve on reporting and timely response to diseases and outbreaks”.

To buttress the importance of the support, state directors, deputy directors, epidemiologist and programme officers from relevant departments of MoH and State Hospital Management Board as well as press officers from Ministry of Information witnessed the presentation ceremony.

Oyo is one of the six states located in the south-west zone of Nigeria.

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For more information, please contact:

Technical contacts:

Dr Pascal Mkanda; Tel: +234 803 402 2140; Email: mkandap [at] who.int
Dr Ada Erinne; Tel: +234 803 307 7509; Email: erinnea [at] who.int
Media contact:

Ms Charity Warigon; Tel: +234 810 221 0093; Email: warigonc [at] who.int
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Below:

01. IEC materials and sanitizers loaded and ready for dispatch from WHO premises

02. The WHO SC handing over the IEC materials to the Commissioner